Chowan University, Murfreesboro, North Carolina
The Brown Lady
Hearing the tale of the Brown Lady of The Columns Building was a rite of passage for incoming freshman at Chowan College in the early 2000s. The pre-Civil War school and surrounding land has grown from a women’s college, the Chowan Baptist Female Institute, into a university over the course of 175 years. For at least 113 of those years, the college has been said to be haunted by one of the female students who resided there during the American Civil War.
There are several variations to her story. As it was relayed to the class of 2005, the Brown Lady, named for the color of her dress, was sitting on top of the columns building on a Halloween night during the Civil War, 1861-1865. She saw a rider approaching up the drive and leaned forward to better see the man approaching; hoping that it was her fiancé returning safely home from battle. Tragically, she lost her balance and fell off the roof to her death. Whether or not it truly was her fiancé, depends on the upper classmen telling the tale. Some will state that it was a rider bringing the message that her love had died in battle. In some twists upon that ending, she did not fall accidentally. Instead, she chose a more Shakespearian demise in terms of lost love and a likely fictional tale.
According to the Raleigh News and Observer, the Lady was enrolled as a student at the college during the Civil War and her husband went off to fight in the war. Departing from the beliefs of many of their neighbors, her husband chose to fight for the North. Then he dies on the battlefield and again, the Lady claims her own life by jumping from the roof of the building.
Or….
Another version of the story that has often been repeated with a little more credit to the story, is that she died of an illness, possibly typhoid fever, while at the college. Typhoid fever was very prevalent during this time period. Per the Armies of Pestilence: The Effects of Pandemics on History Archived, September 9, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. James Clark & Co. (2004) p. 191, 81,360 Union soldiers died of either typhoid or dysentery. This is not to confirm that the Lady’s husband was indeed a Union soldier, these numbers are meant to exemplify the pervasiveness of this disease and others during the war.
Some of the tales regarding her death by typhoid fever do add additional details, as to whether they are meant to enhance the story to make it seem true, or are indeed pulled from historical documents that no longer exist, this is left up to the reader to decide. This extra information states that the ghostly lady came from an aristocratic farm family in Northampton County, NC. A county near the location of the college. She fell in love with a young lawyer from New York. The two become engaged, unfortunately, she wants to finish her time at the college first. Despite this being her decision to stay, she grows melancholy, pinning over her fiancé in the north. This is what causes her to pass away.
With all of these different accounts as to how the ghost came to be, it is no wonder that history also disputes her name. There is one guess as to what it could be.
In 1915, Chowan student Jessie Marie Piland wrote the following,
“Among the many fair-haired and energetic girls that were preparing for college this beautiful September was Eolene Davidson, the beautiful daughter of a well-known farmer. She was a pleasant, sweet-natured girl of nineteen, tall and slender, with wavy black hair, fair complexion and dreamy blue eyes. Much did she enjoy the pleasures of life.”
No matter who she is or where she came from in life, the students have made her into an unofficial mascot in her death. Reports of the hauntings include sightings of her in either full brown dresses or white dresses with brown trim, hence her name. There are also accounts of the sound of a period dress swishing up and down the hallways of the Columns Building and reports of security guards unlocking the main doors to the building in the mornings, only to see leaves strewn about the entrance hall that had not been there when they locked the doors the night before.
Whoever she is or was, her memory at Chowan will remain as long as there are students willing to share the tale.
A Victorian Ghost Story 